The all-seeing Eye of Mac Blackout knows no visible boundary. After a solid 25+ years of neurotically-enthralling creativity across several media types, he finally has a book to show for all of his exciting and enduring hard work.
Around Chicago, his art has become inescapable, always peeking out from a storefront, a doorway, an alley, or one of his beloved garbage cans, his aesthetic has become an unofficial pock mark on the face of the city. But that’s only what you can see on the surface, as the tone gets darker the deeper you dig into his cadre of nightmarish delights, depicting the spectrum between twisted daydreams and fantastic exaggeration. Mac truly creates the demons you WANT around you, adding strange comfort to the mayhem and fear they would normally invoke. Madman’s Eye may be Mac Blackout’s first art book, but we’d wager it will not be his last.

As his direction has drifted across so many projects over the years, he’s gone from respected graffiti artist, into the world of fine art, and into pen & ink, collage, & multi-media painting. Not to mention his numerous world-renowned punk bands, Functional Blackouts, Daily Void, Mickey, New Rose Alliance, and his solo material with Mac Blackout Band, Mac has always been at the center of a rogue nervous system that needed to come to life on it’s own in the form of his art. The incredible resourcefulness and raw talent are impossible to ignore here, and his work is already instantly recognizable. This book epitomizes his deft ability to conquer a multitude of impressively disturbing, yet incredibly interconnected styles, along with deeper look into the Madman behind the Eye.

– Todd Novak (Hozac Books)

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I came to know Mac Blackout in 2000 at a Clone Defects show at one of the most wondrous places on earth, the long defunct Pop’s on Chicago. It was a smelly, dark, and lawless dive bar that hosted a lot of great shows around that time. Mac had just transplanted from Indianapolis to Chicago, a young, wild, and wide-eyed youth. Mac would soon form The Functional Blackouts with a couple of mutual friends, who arrived on the Chicago music scene with great timing. There was a lot going on at the time, and “Garage Rock” was becoming all the rage, and like a pack of ravenous wolves in a field of fresh meat, The Functional Blackouts tore though the scene, and left only bones in their wake. Their songs were as feral, unhinged, and vociferous as their live shows, and the flyers Mac was doing were a perfect reflection of what The Functional Blackouts were about. Mostly photocopied, mixed-media, Whiteout, marker, pen and collage, they were far beyond the lexicon of show flyers anyone was used to seeing. Their imagery was dark and cultish, and had menacing allure that demanded attention and insured attendance. They were dangerous and fun, simultaneously, ––a theme that has played out in Mac’s artwork throughout the years.

It quickly became clear that Mac is a force that could not me tamed. He is a maniac, a hurricane of creativity. As the front guy in Daily Void, then later with the beloved Mickey, and the Mac Blackout Band, Mac stands as one of the most prolific and formidable dudes around. All the while, his constant whirlwind of creative output was unrelenting. For Mac, there wasn’t this type of art, or that type of art, it was all the same to him. His brilliantly painted boomboxes are playful, neurotic, and vivid, painted with perfect execution. The detail on each unique boombox goes from hyper-real, to cartoonish and psychedelic. While the styles depicted in the art throughout his career are far-reaching, be it music, visual art, or whatever he is cooking up, his pace never seems to waver. Take his “stump toppers,” plywood, trace-cut, and painted into colorfully-twisted characters, then drilled to the top of dead tree stumps. There was a time when they were everywhere in the parkways of Chicago’s near northwest side, along with his trash paintings too. A personified, spray-painted, discarded pillow stained with years of sweat, or a discarded hamper turned it into a joyful crazy-eyed lunatic cartoon, that is now more charming and brilliant than is was as a piece of trash. To Mac Blackout, everything is art. There is no line between art and life, one without the other cannot exist on the plane in which we reside. Mac Blackout is a beacon that reminds us of that beautiful and reassuring fact.

– Brett Cross (Hozac Books)

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“The Faces, shapes, lips, eyes and ears! “Classic looking work, a timeless outsider hero, deranged and prolific.” “Very few can do this in such mad variety, colossal, chaotic, color for a new psychedelic age!”
– TIMMY VULGAR (Clone Defects, Human Eye, Timmy’s Organism)

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CHECK OUT the Mac Blackout official site to buy original art right here

CHECK OUT a Mac Blackout feature on The Culture Trip right here

CHECK OUT a Mac Blackout feature on Columbia College’s In The Loop right here

CHECK OUT a Mac Blackout feature in THE CHICAGO READER right here

HZB-006
1st edition of 300
240 Pages, Full color monograph
ISBN: 978-0-9963319-4-4

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Shipping December 8th, 2017

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HoZac Books is proud to present Four Strings, Phony Proof, and 300 45s, written by Sal Maida, one of the most interesting 1970s rock figures you just don’t know enough about. As a member of TWO such integral and ground-breaking 70s bands, ROXY MUSIC and SPARKS, not to mention NYC glam/power pop impresarios MILK ’N COOKIES, as well as studio work with the RUNAWAYS and Robert Calvert’s post-Hawkwind solo material, it’s no secret that Maida was in the right place at the right time, more times than we can count. His first book is presented here for the first time, along with his stash of personal UNPUBLISHED/UNSEEN photographs (including meeting Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Mick Jagger in 1969) on his first of many trips to the UK in the late 1960s, as well as many bands he witnessed in their embryonic states just as the monumental shift in music was taking place at the end of the psychedelic era. From his intricately-detailed stories about growing up in Little Italy’s protected confines, and his far-ahead-of-the-curve craze for record “collecting” before that was even a concept, this book takes you on a ride through Martin Scorsese’s mob territory (they grew up only a few blocks apart) and how it’s inescapable soundtrack influenced him deeply, as well as the unbeaten paths deep within the music-obsessed trenches we all love so well.

Sal Maida’s laid-back personality and his dextrous musical adaptability ensured he’d be in high demand once his chops were in place, and Four Strings, Phony Proof, and 300 45s solidifies his incredible knack for catching a rare opportunity every time it came across his path. His stories are nothing short of fascinating glimpses into a far-gone era, even to those of us with extensive piles of punk history books will rejoice at hearing. Watching a young, pre-X Exene Cervenka and “punk groupie” Farrah Fawcett Minor getting kicked out a Rick Derringer show in early 1977, which led to them becoming close friends and roommates, or Tom Waits getting into a fight with a cop in Sal’s defense in an LA diner, or seeing David Bowie perform an acoustic set with Mick Ronson in 1971 to a small room of people, it all has to be read to be believed, as well as all the other incredibly eye-opening tales contained therein.

Maida just happened to be in so many places when so many historic events transpired it will quickly make the reader green with envy. Maida’s amazing experiences straddled the line between mainstream 60s pop music, 70s proto-punk, and early New Wave like few others have, and he’s still luckily at it today, even recently touring with the likes of Mary Weiss of the SHANGRI-LAS, who personally wrote the back cover blurb on this book. Four Strings, Phony Proof, and 300 45s is the key to those lost tales of rock’n roll adventure, and we are very excited to finally share it with you, not to mention the last section of the book where Sal meticulously lists his 300 essential 45rpm singles, all with riveting footnotes sure to send you into a obsessive frenzy.

Foreword by Lenny Kaye

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“Sal Maida – even the name sounded glamorous and exotic to a spotty and gauche teenager from the London suburbs obsessed with all things glam rock.  With his noble mane, Granny Takes A Trip stage clothes, his blue Rickenbacker bass, his thunderous sound and…more than anything – he was in Roxy Music. And then he was in Milk N’ Cookies. And then he was in Sparks. The list goes on and on.”
–PHILIP KING, (Jesus and Mary Chain / LUSH / The Servants)

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“Sal Maida is the real deal. Sal and I were born five months apart, so our history in music and our love of music go back a very long time. We are both from New York, born and bred. I was truly impressed to hear that Sal is writing a book about his adventures in the music industry. I toured with Sal in the U.S. and in Europe in 2007 and 2008, for my solo tour of the Dangerous Game album. It is a great pleasure to be on the road with Sal anytime.

One of my favorite images is of 6’-6” Sal crammed into an airplane seat for eight hours smiling and grooving to the music in his head phones. He always appears comfortable, even if he may be far from it. I consider that an art form in itself. When everyone else is getting stressed out from things going wrong on tour, he always manages to take it all with a grain of salt, a smile, and a kind word, which always made me calm the hell down.

War stories from the music business are always interesting to me, but when they come from someone who is such a fine musician, decent human being and never seemed to buy into his own P.R., it becomes real.

Sal Maida has lived and breathed music much of his life, now we get a peek inside the reality of that life. I did not know Sal in the sixties but it would have been a pleasure to work with him when my own group was on the road and traveling the world. I am sure we have seen many of the same concerts, and have met many of the same people.

Sal is an excellent musician, he also happens to be one of the nicest people I have ever met within the music industry. I consider him and his wife Lisa great friends.

Tell it like it is- Sal…”
–MARY WEISS, (The Shangri-Las)

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“Sal Maida should have replaced Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones”
–KIM FOWLEY

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CHECK OUT AN EXCERPT from the book as featured on VICE/NOISEY right here

Featured In ROLLING STONE’S Best of 2017 Books

Featured on SkeletonPete.com

Interview with the author on Mark H. Stevens’ blog

STREAM The SAL MAIDA ‘300 45s’ playlist HERE

HZB-005
180 pages
SECOND edition of 400 copies AVAILABLE NOW
ISBN: 978-0-9963319-4-4

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ORDER HERE:

1st edition SOLD OUT:
2nd edition (Shipping January 2018) available HERE:

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